The ARIADNE project Advanced Research Infrastructure for Archaeological Data Networking in Europe

1. The ARIADNE projectAdvanced Research Infrastructure for Archaeological Data Networking in Europe Franco Niccolucci PIN Project Coordinator

2. What is ARIADNE • ARIADNE is a Research Infrastructure aiming at the integration of archaeological datasets in Europe • Four years’ duration • Starting 1st February 2013 • 24 partners • Coordinated by PIN-U. of Florence (IT)

3. The ARIADNE Partnership • Coordinator • Partner • Associate

4. Why ARIADNE • Huge number of archaeological data available in digital format • Large number of non-communicating archaeological datasets • Increasing interest of the research community for data sharing, both passive (“access”) and active (“provide”) • Social pressure for opening data vaults

5. Project Goals • Enable sharing, accessing, using and re-using archaeological datasets • Overcome fragmentation • Foster dataset interoperability • Establish accepted standards and common protocols (e.g. for the quality of digital replicas) • Enable resource discovery and faceted searches • Explore new methods • Create useful tools for searching and browsing Connect, not assemble

6. Project Activities • Networking: establishing collaboration among archaeologists to overcome fragmentation • Collecting, recording and providing information on • What is available The Project Registry • What is going onLiaisons and Cooperation • What needs to be done The Project Innovation Plan • Training on innovation • Joint Research on • Standardization of metadata and reference works (thesauri, gazetteers, authority lists) • Tools for data access and services • Data lifecycle: acquisition, management, long-term preservation • New methodological tools

7. The ACDM • The ARIADNE Catalog Data Model (ACDM) aims at describing datasets, services, and resources in the archaeological domain • So far it addresses databases, collections, thesauri, with plans for covering all relevant resource types • Based on DCAT (W3C recomm.) and other widespread ontologies • Data collected into a registry, using a data acquisition tool • To be used internally to support integration design • Conceived to became a publicly available service and to be extended to other domains (e.g. conservation/restoration/management)

8. Overview of Partners’ Datasets • 20 countries • 24 languages • 1,500,000+ database records • 40,000+ grey literature files 38% DBMS 20% Structured data (datasets) 9% Collections 9% Multimedia 9% Sparse files 15% GIS

9. MetadataSchemas There is great disorder under heaven, the situation is excellent Eight partners (SND, KNAW-DANS, DISCOVERY, MiBAC-ICCU, INRAP, ADS, CYI-STARC) have adopted formal metadata standards for their datasets. The metadata standards reported are: • DDI, DataCite, MARC/UNIMARC, TriDAS, Dublin Core application profiles, INSPIRE, ISO 11915, CARARE, LIDO, CIDOC-CRM. Ten partners (ZRC SAZU, MiBAC-ICCU, ADS, AIAC, MNM-NOK, CYI-STARC, ARUP-CAS, ATHENA RC, NIAM-BAS) have developed proprietary metadata schemas for some of their datasets. However, all these can be mapped onto CIDOC-CRM. Four partners (DISCOVERY, INRAP, ARHEO, OAEW) reported some datasets for which a metadata definition is not currently available but could be derived from the database structure.

10. Research & Management • Make datasets created for Management use • available • usable/useful for Research use • Make tools and methods created for Research use • available • usable/useful for Management use • Establish a common Agenda for Digital Archaeology

11. The (current) datasets lifecycle Research Questions Research Research Data Archaeological Work (Field & Lab) Management Data Management Rescue excavations, Conservation, Restoration, Presentation

12. The (interim) datasets lifecycle Research Questions Research Research Data Archaeological Work (Field & Lab) INTEROPERABILITY Management Data Management Rescue excavations, Conservation, Restoration, Presentation

13. The (ideal) datasets lifecycle Research Questions Archaeological Data Research Research Data Archaeological Work (Field & Lab) Management Data Management Rescue excavations, Conservation, Restoration, Presentation

14. Examples of Collaboration • Mapping the metadata schema and the thesauri of ICCD (Italian Central Institute of MIBAC for Catalogue and Documentation) to ARIADNE standards to achieve future interoperability with SIGEC • Accessing “grey” literature, e.g. excavation reports (UK) • Using ARIADNE visual tools for virtual restoration

15. A Potential for Collaboration • Incorporate the EAC Agenda in the ARIADNE Innovation Plan • Share expertise on standards and data management • Support other activities of common interest • Develop pilot applications • Propose new ambits for research of special interest for EAC • Establish cooperation agreements with individual national institutions • often, but not necessarily, involving also a local research institution • Establish overall cooperation at European level

16. Q&A • Will the ARIADNE data infrastructure be accessible by anybody? • YES. Registration may be required to access some reserved data • How will ARIADNE protect sensible data? • Via “identity federation” of registered users. The access policy of each dataset will be jointly established with the data owner • Is the ARIADNE infrastructure designed for anybody? • NO. It is intended for professional use: researchers, professionals, practitioners, heritage managers etc. • Can anybody add a repository to the ARIADNE network? • NO. This must be done upon arrangement with ARIADNE to protect the integrity and quality of the data infrastructure. However, interesting datasets will be usually accepted.

17. Q&A • Will ARIADNE consider only archaeological datasets? • Officially, YES. But on a case-by-case decision • Why should we (ministry, heritage agency, university department, company) join ARIADNE? • For many good reasons, among others: • You will have a voice in a EU supported initiative and bring in your requirements • You will increase accessibility to your datasets • You will avail of the ARIADNE technology and services for free • Can we get support from ARIADNE? • Cash, NO. Services, YES: e.g. travel & subsistence costs for participating in meetings and for attending training. In special cases ARIADNE may fund a joint scholarship

18. OK! • Good, we are convinced, what should we do now? • Contact me at either of the emails below for a preliminary contact to discuss your participation: • franco.niccolucci@pin.unifi.it • franco.niccolucci@gmail.com • www.ariadne-infrastructure.eu

19. ARIADNE is a project funded by the European Commission under the Community’s Seventh Framework Programme, contract no. FP7-INFRASTRUCTURES-2012-1-313193. The views and opinions expressed in this presentation are the sole responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Commission. Contact: niccolucci@pin.unifi.it www.ariadne-infrastructure.eu